by Tony Tran
“If I can scratch out only change a bit of the inscription then the entire spell on the lock would deactivate and be useless.” Zhang mumbled as he continued swinging away at the lock. Even if a bit of the inscription is change the entire spell would fail and deactivate.
Soon a blueish glow enveloped the lock and an instant later it dissipated into nothingness, leaving the lock defenseless. With one last swing from Zhang the lock was cut into two and fell to the ground. With the lock done, an expression of relief appeared on the faces of the ten shirtless men.
“Alright, swear fealty to me and together we shall achieve greatness.” Zhang said while giving off the aura of a king with his head held high, looking down on the rest of the world.
The ten shirtless men made their way out of the cage and kneeled in front of Zhang on one knee, as a sign of their allegiance. For men who had lost all hope, they would most likely be willing to jump into boiling oil or a sea of flames for their savior.
“M-my lo-ord… Ot-th-ers…” One of the men tried to say as he pointed to another cage covered by white cloth not too far from theirs. From this Zhang, could guess that all of these cloth covered cages most likely held people inside.
Soon enough the dozens of cages in the massive chamber was unveiled and hundreds of shirtless men could be seen trapped inside. Moments later Zhang could be seen wildly swinging his blade once more.
“I have to free them myself and instill it in their minds that I’m their savior. From the amount of essence being released by the ones I’ve freed so far, they should all be level six or higher warriors. The inscriptions had kept Zhang from seeing the essence being emitted by these men before but once they were free, he could clearly tell what level of cultivation they were at.
“If I can add the hundreds of men here into my army then everyone else can kiss their asses goodbye.” Zhang thought happily as he worked to break the locks keeping the men caged in.
Most regular people who are at the peak of their health could be considered on the fourth or fifth level of cultivation, regardless if they actually cultivate or not. A farmer could have an essence level of four but never actually utilize it. While trained soldiers who could to an extent utilize their essence were general at level five.
In the end, it came down to technique, skill and practice because someone could have an essence level of ten and still be beat by someone at the fifth level, if they did not know how to fully utilize their strength. Of course, brute strength wise someone at the tenth level would totally outclass someone at the fifth level regardless of skill, technique and practice, but if they can’t utilize that to their advantage then it would still be pointless.
Having a unit of trained soldiers who were at least level six would make Zhang’s army a force to be reckoned with. This was because the gap of strength between the fifth level and the sixth level was extremely vast and most sixth level cultivators would be high ranking military officer while most level seven or high cultivators would normally be appointed as generals.
An army of soldiers who had the strength of generals would be able to sweep through kingdoms and wipe them out overnight. Especially if they were under Zhang’s command.
A long while later Zhang had nearly freed everyone caged in and he was just about to unlock the last cage when a loud screech echoed through the chamber. Looking back, he could see the now white and purple Silky scurrying across the chamber toward the corridor that they had passed through earlier.
Being able to guess what caused Silky to screech and run into the corridor, Zhang continued swinging his sword at the lock of the final cage. A small army of men had gathered behind Zhang in anticipation of the release of their fellow former captives.
“Done!” Zhang yelled as his sword struck the lock and it fell onto the ground. With that the last of the prisoners were free or so Zhang thought. One of the shirtless men made his way up toward Zhang and began gesturing toward the hundreds large jars that were lined the walls.
“Don’t tell me, there are people sealed in those jars.” Zhang said as he felt somewhat tired from swinging his sword so many times at the locks.
After a few breaths, he made his way to one of the jars that had dozens of talismans wrapped around them and reached his hand out. The moment his hand touched the talisman a red bolt of lightning shot and sent him flying a few feet back.
“What the fuck…” Zhang cursed as his hair was in a mess and black smudges were visible on his face.
“Sweetheart I wouldn’t touch those again if I were you.” Yuying’s voice sounded out behind Zhang in a slight laugh. Before Zhang could even get up, Yuying’s figure brushed past him and arrived in front of the talisman covered jar.
With a wave of her hand a blank piece of paper appeared in her hand along with a small bottle of ink and a brush. After placing the blank piece of paper on the ground and a few light strokes, a talisman with blood red ink was produced.
“This should do the job.” Yuying said with a smile as she stuck her talisman atop of the ones on the jar. Moments later the blood red ink on Yuying’s talisman seemed to come to life and began flowing out of the piece of paper it was written on. Slowly the blood red ink spread from the talisman it was written on and covered the jar in a layer of red ink.
Then the layer of red ink ignited and burned away. Once the red layer of ink and the talismans were all burned away all that was a bare jar with a wooden lid. Once the talismans were gone, a small hairpin appeared in Yuying’s hand and an instant later it was sent piercing through the air.
What followed next as the sound of a shattering earthen jar and the sound of gushing water, as the hairpin that shot out of Yuying’s hand grazed the jar causing it to shatter and spill a large amount of water all over the floor.
Something else that flowed out when the jar shattered was a young woman who looked to be in her twenties. This woman could be described as beautiful in normal terms but couldn’t be compared to the four beauties.
Dressed in rags that barely covered her body, the young women were covered by a set of robes that Yuying withdrew from her interspatial ring.
“She’s has a level six cultivation.” Zhang said as he examined the woman’s power level.
“Stick these to the jars.” Yuying said as she began producing talismans like the one she had used earlier. There were hundreds of sealed jars but Yuying was making talismans at unbelievable speeds. Soon enough every jar had one of Yuying’s talismans stuck to them and were being engulfed by red ink that was flowing out of the talisman.
The moment all of the talismans on the jars were burned off, all of the jars were gathered and removed from the walls. When the jars were one after another, beautiful young women were showing up, of course, the majority of the jars contained men but a large number of women were found also.
If the shirtless men in the cages were counted, a total of one thousand five hundred people were recovered. With their cultivation levels ranging from the lowest of five to the highest level being seven.
Once the people who were sealed away in the jars had woken up, clothes and weapons were handed out by Zhang to properly equip this new addition to his army. Unlike the men that were kept in the cages, the people who were sealed away in the jars had no idea where they were or who they were. It was as if their mind had been wiped blank by whoever sealed them away in the jars.
“Alright we’ve stayed here for long enough it’s time to move.” Zhang said to his new and old subordinates and his four lovely wives who brought along a few hundred men with them.
Now with sufficient numbers and an overall stronger force, Zhang was ready to continue investigation.
“Open the gates.” Zhang ordered as he and his followers stood in front of a pair of massive gates that led into the unknown. There were only two paths for them to take, the first was to head back from the direction they came from, and the other was to open these massive gates and move forward into the unknown.
“So far only weird things have
been happening... I hope nothing crazy is behind these gates.” Zhang mumbled to himself in an inaudible whisper.
The gates rumbled as they were pushed opened, once the gates open a mountain of bones flowed outward and buried everyone under countless white bones. Climbing out from underneath the mass of bones everyone was left dumbfounded.
“Just how many bones are there…” Ai said as her view of the room behind the massive gates was obstructed by the mountain of bones.
“Yuying if you can do us the honor.” Zhang said as a purple light enveloped his hand and shot toward Yuying. Knowing what Zhang meant, a green aura soon enveloped Yuying and a think green mist twisted and twirled around her. Soon enough the entire chamber was engulfed by a sea of green mist.
Ran Kaitou’s men and the men who Zhang, were stricken in awe and fear once the mountain of bones began rumbling. One by one the bones began to connect and join together, thousands of skeletons were created. Once they were created the skeletons crawled out from the mountain of bones and quickly formed neat rows, as if they were soldiers awaiting orders from their commander.
A while later the pile of bones was gone and an endless number of skeletons were standing in line. Then with a snap of her fingers, Yuying released her spell and all of the skeletons broke apart and a sea of bones was formed.
The mountain of bones was replaced by a sea of bones but the main difference was the path forward was no longer blocked. Of course, Yuying did not remove all of the bones that were blocking their path, she did however move a large portion the ones that were obstructing their path.
“Let’s go.” Zhang said as he took the lead and took the first step into the room behind the gates.
With the mountain of bones gone the group made their way through the massive gates and entered room even larger than the one they were in before. Countless white bones laid about as the group pressed onward.
As Zhang took the lead he noticed something atop one of the mountains of bones. It had the figure of a person, cloaked in pitch black clothes.
“Who are you! Name yourself or I’ll take it you’re one of those abominations we ran into earlier and I’ll give you a quick death.” Zhang roared at the figure atop the mountain of bones.
“Who am I? Why must I name myself when you are the guest. But I will tell you this as thanks for bringing me more sacrifices. I am the lord of the new moon; I am the man who will consume the rest of the Warring States Region.” The man cloaked in black clothes said from atop the mountain of bones.
“You’re the provincial lord of the new moon province, aren’t you?” Lingqi said with eyes full of disdain and mockery.
“I am the lord of the entire region! Once my New Moon Army is recreated, nothing will be able to stop me. Ahahahaha.” The man said with a hint of madness in his voice.
“Help us! Help!” A mass of voices could be heard in the distance as the man dressed in pitch black cloths broke into hysterical laughter.
In the distance behind a few mounds of bones, were hundreds of tired up people who were sitting in the center of a gigantic magical circle.
“Shut up and accept your fate! If you’re lucky, you’ll become some of the strongest people to step foot in the Warring States Region. If you're unlucky I’ll add you to the Jiangshi horde.”
“So, it was him who made the Jiangshi….” Zhang thought.
Soon the cries for help turned into screams filled with fear.
Chapter 18: Black Pearl
The gigantic magic circle began glowing and blood began streaming out of the eyes of the people trapped inside. Soon blood began seeping out from their pores and a pool of it formed under their feet.
An instant later the very flesh on their bodies began melting off of their bones and falling onto the floor. All of this happened in but an instant, not allowing Zhang very much time to react or help at all.
Once the blood and flesh that covered their bones were completely gone, only hundreds of skeletons were left. With nothing left to hold them together the skeletons scattered into the ground forming a sea of bones.
Then the glowing magic circle grew brighter and the blood and melted flesh began swirling about and condensing in the center of the circle. Flowing into the air the mix of gore condensed together, creating a pearl sized ball. A pitch-black pearl fell to the ground as the light that was emitting from the magic circle faded away. In that end all that was left behind by the hundreds of people were bones, clothes and the single black pearl.
A second later the man cloaked in black clothes who was the lord of the New Moon Province leapt off the mountain of bones and landed in front of the gigantic magic circle. Picking up the pearl he began to examine it as Zhang and the others stood with shocked expressions on their faces. Having collected and found countless pearls such as the one that was just created right in front of his eyes, Zhang could simply imagine the amount of people that were killed in order to create so many pearls.
“Perhaps that's what happened to all of the people in the mansion and all of the soldiers guarding the city…” Zhang thought to himself as he watched the man examine the pearl.
“Hmph another defective one… Besides those three perfect ones I’ve yet to create another perfect soul pearl…” The lord of the New Moon Province said with a disappointed tone as he held the pearl in his hand, without showing any reaction toward the deaths of the people in the magical circle as he stepped on their bones.
“Thank you for bring me the next batch of materials, I was just about to go fetch them.” New Moon City’s lord said with a sinister grin as he looked at Zhang’s newly acquired soldiers.
Of the one thousand and five hundred new additions to Zhang’s army only the men who were kept in the cages were fit for battle while the people recovered from the sealed jars had amnesia and were not fit to fight at all.
From the way, the provincial lord acted he seemed fairly confident that he could defeat everyone present, or rather he had some way to deal with all of the people Zhang freed.
“Everyone retreat!” Zhang yelled to his followers. From the essence, this man was emitting Zhang could tell that he was at most at the sixth level of cultivation. Which is lacking if one compared him to Zhang, the beauties who were at the seventh level of cultivation, nearing the eight and the thousand five hundred people that had just been rescued.
But from the confidence on his face and speech, Zhang knew that he most likely had a way to deal with everyone present.
“Maybe there are other magic circles here and are just buried underneath the piles of bones.” Zhang thought as his people began retreating out of the massive twin gates and back into the chamber that they had just come from.
“There’s nowhere for you to run!” The provincial lord yelled as he snapped his fingers. The walls began to tremble as hundreds of runes and inscriptions on the ground began to light up. Unlike the magic circle before, these ones turned the piles of bones on top of them into ash and replaced the bones with something sinister.
The piles of bones were instantly replaced with hundreds of Jiangshi and lesser Jiangshi. There were also dozens of monsters like the one that Zhang had faced in the corridor, some looked like children while others looked like grown men and women.
Then there were even four gigantic monsters that resembled hundreds of conjoined people, which Zhang had resembled the larger versions of the thing Zhang had killed in the corridor, slowly inching out of the magic circles.
“Retreat to the corridor! Use the small space to our advantage!” Zhang commanded. Without knowing how many magic circles could pop up, paired with the large number of monsters that had just shown up, the best place to put up a stand was the corridors. If anything, they could flee back to the surface and leave the province. When in doubt and without a way to fight, the best strategy is to flee.
The spiders were the first into the corridor thanks to their speed then they were followed by the people who were toward the rear of the group when entering the room behind the t
win gates, then came the beauties and Zhang.
Following behind his men, a glint appeared in Zhang’s eyes as he caught sight of the cages that he had freed the shirtless men from not too long ago. Although the locks on the cages were broken, the cages themselves were completely intact and usable.
With a grin on his face, Zhang stored away every inscription covered cage in his path as he headed toward the corridor. Amazingly he did all of this while hundreds of defective Jiangshi and a horde of monsters were in pursuit.
“Ran as much as you’d like but none of you are getting out of here alive!” The New Moon Lord yelled as maniacal laughter soon followed.
“This guy has a few screws loose… As if sacrificing his people to make an army of monsters scary enough, guy has to be crazy too.” Zhang thought was a sigh as he and his people neared the corridor.
Once inside he would be able to use the cage to block the path of the incoming monsters, make it so that only a few of the monsters if any at all can engage them in combat at a time. From what he had heard before, Zhang knew that none of the
